In a right pickle over tax matters – why is nothing ever simple ?
After spending all of yesterday morning with our French Expert Comptable (an expert accountant?) completing our income tax return, my blonde hair has now taken on a shade of grey.
In the three hours we were there, we spent two hours, forty five minutes deciding on our tax position, completed no less than 4 different returns for four parts of our income and during fifteen minutes discussed how much income tax we would pay (les impots) and how much CRDS tax we would pay on top of that (CRDS is a tax which everyone pays to help clear the debt in the French social security. It is paid on top of your income tax). Did I mention that this was our second appointment and that we were there two hours for the first one?
Turned out we don’t have any tax to pay, in fact they owe us money. YES! Oh no, tax is just Les Impots, don’t forget the CRDS the accountant said – you must pay that. I am bemused. How can they pay me back tax and yet I still need to pay thousands of Euros to clear the debt in the social security system here?
Also, why do they not understand that if there is debt due to how the healthcare system is run, they are not solving the problem unless they change how it is run. Is it that hard to realise that giving someone a box of 30 tablets when they only need 7 is a far more expensive way of running the system and thus lining the pockets of the various drug companies.
So that’s sorted, just need to sort out ongoing argument between UK and French accountant about where our tax residency lies now. Next year, I will have forward planned and everything will be so much more simple. 
